August 30, 2019
Statistical training for building research capacity of K-State partners in Cambodia
K-State partners at the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition and Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, recently hosted an intensive five-day short course on Modern Statistics for the Agricultural Sciences.
The course was hosted Aug. 12-16 to build local research capacity of K-State partners at the center in direct alignment with the mission of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Agriculture. A group of 20 Royal University of Agriculture faculty, staff and graduate students attended the course.
The training was commissioned by Jessie Vipham, assistant professor of animal science at K-State, hosted by Lyda Hok, director of the center and professor of agronomy at Royal University of Agriculture, and developed by Nora Bello, associate professor of statistics at K-State, who also led the short course.
The course included introductory and advanced statistical topics specifically requested and selected for the target audience. Of most interest were topics related to the design of experiments and specification of mixed models for the analysis of messy data from complex designed experiments. Real-data examples were used to motivate class discussions and to illustrate the implementation of statistical software.
Faculty and students also signed up for statistical consulting sessions to discuss their research projects and gather tailored statistical advice in experimental design, model specification, data analysis and interpretation of results.